Ovadia Yosef
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Ovadia Yosef (b. Abdullah Youssef, 1920 in Baghdad, Iraq) (Hebrew: עובדיה יוסף) is a Haredi rabbi, Talmudic scholar, a recognized authority in Halakha ("Jewish law"). He is the former Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel and the current spiritual leader of the Shas political party in the Knesset (Israel's parliament).
Rabbi Yosef is a major figure in Haredi Judaism who is revered by his followers. He considers voting in Israel's elections and participating in Israeli politics a key to enhancing the standing of Sephardi Jews and to influencing the State of Israel in their favor.
Image:Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Voting in Israelis Elections.jpg
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Biography
Rabbi Yosef was born in Baghdad, Iraq, part of the ancient community of Iraqi Jews, but moved to Jerusalem with his family when he was four years old. He received semicha ("rabbinical ordination") at the age of 20. In 1942 he served as the head of the Cairo bet din and deputy chief rabbi of Egypt. He returned to Israel after the establishment of the state and served on the rabbinical court in Petah Tikva and later on the court of Jerusalem, then he was appointed to the Supreme Rabbinical Court of Appeals in Jerusalem, eventually becoming the chief sephardic rabbi of Tel Aviv in 1968, which he held until his election as Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel in 1973.
Rabbi Yosef is considered by Haredi Jews to be an Illui ("genius scholar") with an encyclopedic memory, and an authoritative arbiter of Halakha (posek halakhot). He is generally considered one of the most important religious authorities for Sephardi Jews and Mizrahi Jews. He lives in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Har Nof.
Some of his more famous verdicts are:
- It is legitimate and allowed to give territory from the Land of Israel in order to achieve true peace.
- A collective recognition of the Jewishness of the Beta Israel, after there was a suspicion that their conversion to Judaism was not in compliance with to Halakha ("Jewish law").
- Allowing the wives of Israel Defense Force soldiers who have been missing in action for a long time to marry again, a verdict which is known as "the unchaining of agunot" (התרת עגונות).
In April 2005, Israeli security services arrested three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), who had been observing Rabbi Yosef in public and were held on the suspicion of intended murderTemplate:Ref. One, Musa Darwish, was convicted on December 15, 2005 of Yosef's attempted murder and of throwing firebombs at vehicles on the Jerusalem-Ma'aleh Adumim road. He was sentenced to twelve years in prison and three years probation. Template:Ref
Influence
Government influence
In 1990 Rabbi Yosef used his position as Shas spiritual leader to pressure Prime Minister Itzhak Shamir into agreeing to hold negotiations with Arab states for a peaceful settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Shamir, a member of the Likud Party, refused to make any commitments.
According to one biography of the rabbi, Ben Porat Yosef, the relationship between the two had never been comfortable because of Shamir's unstudious personality. As a way of gaining a character analysis of politicians, Rabbi Yosef had invited both Shamir and Shimon Peres to learn Talmud with him. While Peres proved an engaging and fluid learner, Shamir was stoic toward the material, a trait that led Rabbi Yosef to instead use one of Shamir's cabinet members, Housing and Construction Minister David Levy, as his key partner in dealing with the Likud. Levy had a relatively warm relationship with the rabbi due to his moderate approach to Israel's security and foreign affairs policies, his charismatic personality, and his connection with Sephardi traditions (as a Moroccan, Levy was the highest ranking Sephardi politician in the 1980s).
In 1990, Rav Yosef pulled Shas out of the coalition with the Likud and attempted to form a partnership with Peres's left-centre Labour Party. The bold move, engineered but opposed by Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, backfired when the highly respected Ashkenazi rosh yeshiva ("dean" [of the Ponevezh yeshiva in Bnei Brak]) Rabbi Elazar Shach (and subsequent founder of the Degel HaTorah party) fiercely commanded Rabbi Yosef to return Shas to the coalition with the Likud. During this time Yosef was severely criticised by other major members of the Haredi religious community in Israel, particular the Ashkenazim who generally sided with the Likud and the right in opposition to the perceived secularist tendencies of Labour and the left.
The failure of the scheme, today called the "Stinking Affair", or maneuver Template:Ref, was responsible for Peres's downfall as leader of Labour, and his 1991 defeat in internal elections to former Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Since the 1980s Yosef has approved the participation by Shas in most Israeli governments, except for the last two governments of Ariel Sharon since January 2003. In the last Knesset, Shas was one of the only parties to have been in the opposition for the duration of that Knesset's term, along with leftist Meretz and the Arab factions Ra'am (United Arab List), Hadash, and Balad. This was largely because of the rise of Shinui to the powerful third party position, a position that was previously held by Shas. Shinui demanded to create a government without Shas.
Cultural influence
In a 2004 article by MaarivTemplate:Ref, Rabbi Yosef was mentioned as one of the most influential rabbis in Israel, second only to Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv. He was described as:
- The spiritual leader of Shas. The man most identified with the honorific title "Maran". He has considerable political strength, mainly because he controls the Knesset members of Shas.
However, the key influence of Rabbi Yosef is in the arena of Judaism, specifically in Halakha:
- In addition, he has great influence in teaching and endowing of his Halakhic way. Prayers according to Yosef's verdicts are the most common in Sephardic synagogues, and his Halakhic books gained circulation beyond compare. Almost no one disputes the fact he is a Torah phenomenon, one of a kind. Despite this, he is "field rabbi" and goes down to the common people with countless sermons. ...
Bibliography
Among Rabbi Yosef's earliest works was a detailed commentary on the Ben Ish Hai. He was asked to finish the commentary Kaf Ha'Chaim by Rabbi Yaakov Chaim Sofer after the author's death. Two sets of Rabbi Yosef's responsa have been published, Yabia Omer and Yechavei Da'ath (both titles are references to Psalm 19). His responsa are noted for citing almost every source regarding a specific topic and are often referred to simply as indexes of rulings. Rabbi Yosef has printed a commentary of the Mishnah tractate Pirkei Avoth ("Ethics of the Fathers") under the title Anaf Etz Avot and "Maor Israel" a commentary on various parts of the Talmud. His son, Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, has published a widely read codification of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's rulings called Yalkut Yosef. Another son, Rabbi David Yosef, has printed various prayer books and liturgy according to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's rulings. He also wrote the Torat HaMoadim, rules about the Jewish holidays, and Halacha Berura.
Controversy
Template:Wikiquote Among secular Israelis, Yosef is mainly famous for being the leader of the political party called Shas and for his fierce and sharp rhetoric, often combined with curses and ill-wishes to hated political leaders. Some argue that Yosef's quotes are "hate speech".
Politics
Reactions to Rabbi Yosef's "political" quotes have ranged from laughter to fury. Shas spokespeople and Rabbi Yosef's followers argue that his quotes are taken out of context and that they include technical religious terms which the average person is not familiar with, and therefore, misunderstood.
A quote often cited by Rabbi Yosef's opponents is: "The Lord shall return the murderers' deeds on their own heads, waste their seed and exterminate them, devastate them and vanish them from this world." However, this is in fact a quote from Obadiah 1:18, in reference to the descendants of Esau.
In a July 2001 speech Rabbi Yosef called for Arabs to go to hell: "In the old city of Jerusalem they [Arabs] are swarming like ants. They should go to hell - and the Messiah will speed them on their way." Template:Ref
In March 2005, Rabbi Yosef made comments that were widely interpreted as praying for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's death: "Let God strike him down... he is torturing the people of Israel... The Holy One wants us all to return to the Torah, and then he will strike him with one blow and he will die. He will sleep and never wake up."Template:Ref Aides responded to the public outcry by explaining that rabbi Yosef had been criticizing Sharon's plan for Disengagement from Gaza, not Sharon himself.
In March 2006, before the 2006 Israeli elections, Rabbi Yosef allegedly claimed that anybody who votes for his Shas party would go to the Garden of Eden (heaven), while those who oppose Shas would go to hell. This has caused a great drop in Shas's expected votes, according to polls. [1] The rabbi's representatives denied the charges of the latter quote.
Theodicy
Some of Rabbi Yosef's theodicy-related pronouncements have also been controversial. In 2000 he described the Holocaust as God's retribution against the reincarnated soul of Jewish sinners: "the 6 million Holocaust victims were reincarnations of the souls of sinners, people who transgressed and did all sorts of things that should not be done. They had been reincarnated in order to atone." In response to a storm of criticism, Shas chairman Eli Yishai commented that criticism of the rabbi was unjustified: "Rabbi Ovadia weeps for every Jew who is killed ... but nobody, not even a saint, has not sinned. Everyone dies in a state of sin."Template:Ref
Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 he blamed the tragedy on US support for the Gaza disengagement and on lack of studying the Torah. He went on to comment that since black Americans are not required (or even allowed) to study the Torah, the duty is incumbent on his followers to do so: "There was a tsunami and there are terrible natural disasters, because there isn’t enough Torah study...black people reside there [New Orleans]. Blacks will study the Torah? [God said] let’s bring a tsunami and drown them...Bush was behind the [expulsion of] Gush Katif, he encouraged Sharon to expel Gush Katif…we had 15,000 people expelled here [in Israel], and there [in America] 150,000 [were expelled]. It was God’s retribution ..God does not short-change anyone.Template:Ref, Template:Ref
According to those who place this in the context of classical Torah views: This is in line with two often quoted Talmudic edicts: That whenever one sees a misfortune, they should see it as a message that they should repent of their sins. And, if a person does not know how he has sinned, he should blame it on the lack of Torah study.
Peace advocacy
Ironically, despite public comments which paint a picture of Rabbi Yosef as an extremist, he has long been a distinguished rabbinical authority advocating peace negotiations, and has done so since the late 1980s. His main justification is his Halakhic ruling that pikuach nefesh ("saving lives"), takes precedence over all other obligations in the Torah, including those pertaining to the sanctity of land. Yosef says that, according to the Torah, every other commandment should be forfeited if a life is put in danger. Based on this, Yosef opposes the ideology of Religious Zionism, particularly in regards to its settlement program and confrontational manner. Rabbi Yosef maintains that the settlements and the Arab-Israeli conflict endanger Jewish lives, and if Israel doesn't make every effort to reach a peace settlement and enact defensive security measures, it is contributing to that danger.
However, in 2005, Rabbi Yosef repeatedly condemned the Gaza Disengagement. He argued that while he supported withdrawal in principle, he was opposed to any unilateral action that occurred outside the framework of a peace agreement. Rabbi Yosef again cited the principle of pikuach nefesh, saying that empowering the Palestinians without a commitment to end terror would result in threatening Jewish lives, particularly in areas near Gaza in range of Qassam rocket attacks.Template:Ref In contrast to some of his rabbinical colleagues, such as Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, Yosef refused to entertain the idea of holding a referendum on the disengagement, and instructed his MKs to vote against the plan when it came up in the Knesset.
Notes
- Template:Note PFLP members held in plot to assassinate Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Haaretz 18 April 2005 (English)
- Template:Note East J'lem man gets 12 years in jail for plotting to kill Shas spiritual leader by Haaretz December 15 2005
- Template:Note Rabbi Schach - a man of wars and battles by Haaretz, 2001
- Template:NoteIsrael's most influential Rabbis by Maariv 12 August 2004 (Hebrew)
- Template:Note Newsmax
- Template:Note Shas Rabbi Yosef: 'All the troubles' come from Ashkenazi Jews Haaretz 26 November 2003
- Template:Note The Ashkenazi/Sephardi Jihad Connection by Arutz Sheva December 4, 2003
- Template:Note Rabbi says God will punish Sharon by BBC 9 March 2005
- Template:Note CNN
- Template:Note Rabbi: Hurricane punishment for pullout by Ynetnews 7 September 2005 (English)
- Template:NoteJewish Week
- Template:NoteEngaging Disengagement- Knesset Faction Positions on the Disengagement by Jewish Agency
External links
- Maran - a website containing videos of sermons given by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef
- Halacha Yomit - a website containing daily Halacha given by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef
- Time Magazine Overview of controversial Yosef moments
- Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and his "Culture War" in Israel, from Middle East Review of International Affairs, 4:4, December 2000.
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